The use of bar codes on retail products has become almost universal. Such bar codes are read by checkout scanners which correlate the code that is detected by the scanner with price and product information. This has greatly expedited the checkout process at retail stores. However, checkout clerks may still spend an undesirable amount of time searching for the bar code on a given retail item so that it can be scanned. This slows down the checkout process, which decreases efficiency and often times displeases customers.
The use of bar code labels on retail products has also suffered from other disadvantages in the past. In many instances, the manufacturer of the retail item wishes to utilize as much available space on the packaging for providing graphics, printed information, pictures, and other visual material that is meant to be viewed by the consumer. The manufacturer of the product, however, has been forced in the past to set aside a certain amount of space on the packaging for the printing of the bar code. The bar code thus reduces the amount of space that the manufacturer of the product has available for printing other information or pictures.
The desire can therefore be seen for product packaging that sacrifices less space to bar codes, reduces the time checkout clerks must spend looking for the bar codes, and provides more space for the manufacturer of the product to place other graphical information.